Setting Myself A Goal: Ideas for Daily Routine?

So, I've decided that I want to set myself a goal rating of 1500/1600 by the end of the year. I know that this includes doing tactics daily, playing chess daily, and study of chess theory. But I have a few questions:
1) When it comes to studying master games, I sit myself down in front of a database, pick the first one at the top and start going through it... But I find myself wondering if there are more efficient ways than going through each and every game in the Fritz database. Suggestions as to how to narrow down my search?
2) I want to improve my play, not only online, but over the board as well, and I do not have the opportunity to play OTB very often. How would it be best to balance these two?
3) Am I missing something critical from this list that I need to address before I can attain my goal? 

I would love to attain a higher rating than 1600, but one must also consider the time it takes to gain 300 rating points. If I can attain a higher understanding and average playing strength than a 1600, I will be more than happy.

Cheers in any case!

William

Thanks, Charles!

That will probably help with my "what now" as I come out of book. 

Good chess books are great, I will see what I can find! Thank you!

"Logical Chess: Move by Move" by Chernev.

Hmm, that's two suggestions now, I must investigate this book!

Thank you! I am mainly attempting to cut down on the blunders, but some more theory and experience will be needed... Especially on endgames...

"Logical Chess: Move by Move" by Irving Chernev is a great learning aide.

Follow it with "Chess: The Art of Logical Thinking" by Neil McDonald.

Both books help you understand the thought process of masters, move by move. The first one deals with older masters. The second one deals with more modern masters.

I will definitely see what I can do about attaining those! Thank you!

Well, it's good to hear that I am not the only one, and that there is hope...

I think recognizing tactics and tactics patterns is the key, but it also helps to know where to try to set-up tactics when none are immediately available.

It helps to remember tactics patterns better if you study and memorize the names of the tactics and, after you do tactics problems, make it a point to tell yourself which tactics applied to it and look at the tags to see if others agree.  Two great interactive sites for tactics names are:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics--definitions-and-examples

https://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs.html

and a great one for positional motif names is here:

https://chesstempo.com/positional-motifs.html

You should be able to completely describe to yourself or others ALL the dozens of examples on those pages, otherwise how will you easily recognize them in a game?

Some knowledge of strategy helps when you're not sure if you should attack Kingside, Queenside, castle-first, etc. otherwise you'll have trouble deciding where to look or set-up your tactics.

So, I recommend books on strategy that give you easy-to-remember, small sets of rules.

Three that I like, in easiest-to-hardest order, are:

1. Simple Attacking Plans by master-rated Fred Wilson: 37 games that illustrate four simple goals including: whenever possible, point all your pieces at your opponent's king.

2. The Art of the Middlegame by GM's Keres and Kotov: the 2nd chapter alone, "Stategy and Tactics of Attack on the King," represents the best 50 pages of strategy instruction I've ever read, especially the section telling you how to determine if opposite castling is to your advantage - then how to proceed tactically.

3.  How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th Ed. by IM Jeremy Silman.  This uses a system of imbalances -determining where on the board you have strengths and weaknesses- to determine where you should attack or defend and which tactics are likely to work.  It also includes some easy to remember rules of thumb like: a N on the 3rd rank is weaker than a B, a N on the 4th is equal to a B, a N on the 5th is stronger than a B, a N on the 6th rank is devastating, a N or the 7th or 8th rank tends to be much weaker than on the 6th.

Back to Basics: Tactics will get you to 1600+ easily on this site alone, if you're talking about Daily Chess. 

I've been looking for somewhere to improve on positional motifs, thans for that!

I am practicing tactics on lichess, who offers a good tactics trainer.

I actually have the second, book on your recommendations list, "The Art of the Middlegame", which I have found very helpful. I have heard nothing but positive feedback on "How to Reassess Your Chess", so it looks like I've got a shopping list developing! Thanks for taking the timeneeded for such a detailed post!

For me it always has been about three things, training itself, no matter the result, that's what it is about and combining with quick book study (for me John Batholomew) and some tutorials. That combination is priceless, even if you give it just 10 minutes at start, with time, it'll grow into great advantage, step by step  

Huh! There you go!

(For some reason, I find concentrating on this site very difficult. But thank you! Is it a book?)

Hi, about

"2) I want to improve my play, not only online, but over the board as well, and I do not have the opportunity to play OTB very often. How would it be best to balance these two?"

You can check on my blog for the practical side of OTB competition.

I'm sure you'll get plenty of advices on the chess studies, still:

You've got a ECO code in Fritz/Chessbase: use it to make searches on games that are alike the openings you play! You can even refine the search to avoid outdated games that will provide only refutated lines, and I advise you to look for games with commentaries, if any in your database.

When you look at the game: activate the engine for ongoing analysis of the game. beware tho: the engine's evaluation is often not reliable in the early stage of the game, and also not very reliable under 3 minutes running on one position. So make sure you let the thing run long enough when you feel you've reach a key move or position.

Good luck!

Yep, I'm finding that to be a good routine as well... I tend to over exert myself though... It's a balancing act I guess.

<div class="fquote"><span class="quoted-user"> pl4ych4ss wrote: </span> <div class="quoted-text">Reading book like 'logical chess move by move' is better than reading games by yourself. Author explained it in details.</div> <div class="quoted-text">&nbsp;</div> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>you read my mind. This book will teach you what its like to look at a masters game very well. I'm 1700 and just now able to understand those games on my own.

my best advice...

1. Study more than you play.

2. Study for a goal for a period of time to accomplish a goal. I'm studying defense now in a book and pawn structure. Sometimes I won't play a few days read the material, make sure I got it and then play chess again. 

3. Play lots of blitz. I played around 5000 games of blitz with some studying and that taught me a lot quickly. Perhaps I increased even 200-300 points. This can be a basis for study, what don't I know, what don't I like, what went well. 5-10 minutes is more than enough time.

4. Have fun, play some bughouse, play faster 1 minute blitz games, play weird gambits etc.

5. Rest. We grow a little when we play, we grow even greater when we allow our brain to rest. 

I may do so!

Huh! I'll boot up Fritz and do that soon... But now, to bed... Thanks!